Police officials attached to the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) are facing an uphill task translating land documents dating more than 120 years — a part of investigation into the ownership of a controversial piece of land valued at Rs 40 crore, located near the head office of the Bruhath Bangalore Mahanagar Palike office.

The documents are scripted in a mixture of Kannada and Marathi languages and the local government translation department has been unable to translate it.

A BMTF investigating team has traced a document related to the land that was created in 1883 and are making efforts to find out what is written on it as part of its efforts to identify ownership.

The BMTF had registered a case against four private persons based on a complaint by local corporator M Gopi who alleged that government land had been encroached upon by private parties.

BMTF officials during their investigation found out that there was no genuine ownership documents for the controversial piece of land except for a 1981 court decree in favour of two private persons.

The investigation revealed that the two private persons, Arif and Anif, obtained the decision in their favour after approaching a local court.

According to available documents prior to the court decree, the land was split into three parts with one portion being identified as a Smashana or burial ground, another as Hyder Ali Makan and the last one as Venkataraj property.

“We found a court decree which is in favour of two private persons. They obtained the decree in their name in 1981. The city corporation did not appeal against the decree in the court,” Additional Director General of Police (BMTF) R P Singh said.

The BMTF officials recently started to dig for the original documents of the land and they managed to find a 120-year-old document with the help of the revenue department. The original document was created in 1883 and it was scripted in a form of Kannada that is a mixture of Old Kannada and the Marathi language.

“We sent the original document to the translation department of the government to know what it says. But, the department has replied saying they have found it difficult to translate many words in the document. We are looking for experts who can read it and translate it. We have listed four persons who can read the script and will get a translation done very soon,” an investigating officer said.